Search Results: History -- Europe from I Cannot Live Without Books

Agincourt: The Fight for France by Ranulph Fiennes
On 25th October 1415, on a French hillside near the village of Agincourt, four men sheltered from the rain and prepared for battle. All four were English knights, ancestors of Sir Ranulph Fiennes and part of the army of England's King Henry V. Across the valley, four sons of the French arm of the Fiennes family were confident that the Dauphin's army would win the day...
Sir Ranulph Fiennes explains how his own ancestors were key players through the centuries of turbulent Anglo-French history that led up to Agincourt, and he uses his experiences as an expedition leader and soldier to give us a fresh perspective on one of the bloodiest periods of medieval history.
With fascinating detail on the battle plans, weaponry, and human drama of Agincourt, this is a gripping evocation of a historical event integral to English identity. Six hundred years after the Battle of Agincourt, Sir Ranulph Fiennes casts new light on this epic event that has resonated… Read More

The Bohemians: The Lovers Who Led Germany's Resistance Against the Nazis by Norman Ohler
Summertime, 1935. On a lake near Berlin, a young man is out sailing when he glimpses a woman reclining on the prow of a passing boat. Their eyes meet -- and one of history's greatest conspiracies is born.
Harro Schulze-Boysen had already shed blood in the fight against Nazism by the time he and Libertas Haas-Heye began their whirlwind romance. She joined the cause, and soon the two lovers were leading a network of anti-fascist fighters that stretched across Berlin's bohemian underworld. Poets, philosophers, workers, and artists, they were all freethinkers united by a desire to bring down Hitler at any cost. Harro himself infiltrated German intelligence and began funneling Nazi battle plans to the Allies, including the details of Hitler's surprise attack on the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Libertas used her position at the propaganda ministry to begin collecting evidence of the mass murder of Jews. They knew the stakes… Read More

Empires of the Normans: Conquerors of Europe by Levi Roach
October 16th, 1066.
As Harold II, the last crowned Anglo-Saxion king of England, lay dying in Susses, the Duke of Normandy was celebrating an unlikely victory. William "the Bastard" had emerged from interloper to successor to the English throne. He had survived the carnage of the Battle of Hasting and, two months later, on Christmas day, he would be crowned king of England. No longer would Anglo-Saxons or Vikings rule England: this was now the age of the Normans.
A momentous event in European history, the defeat of the Anglo-Saxons had the most dramatic effect of any battle in the High Middle Ages. In a few short months, the Duke of Normandy, now known as William the Conqueror, became the dominant ruler in Britain. Over the coming decades, the English kingdom would be rebuilt around a new landowning class. During the next century, as the norman kings laid the foundations of modern Britain, their poer and that of the wider Norman diaspora would… Read More

Endeavour: The Ship That Changed the World by Peter Moore
Endeavour is the story of a ship, an idea, and a way of looking at the world. It is grounded in the enlightenment, an age of endeavors, with Britain consumed by the impulse for grand projects undertaken at speed. Endeavour was also the name given to a collier -- a commonplace coal-carrying vessel -- made of oak, bought by the Royal Navy in 1768. No one could have guessed it would go on to become the most significant ship in the chronicle of British exploration. As Charles Darwin wrote, Endeavour added an entire hemisphere to the civilized world when it carried Captain James Cook on his first major voyage, newly charting the existence of New Zealand and the eastern coast of Australia.
Endeavour also had a role in American history. During the battles for control of New York in 1776, she witnessed the bloody birth of the republic. As well as carrying botanists, a Polynesian priest, and the remains of the first kangaroo to arrive in Britain, she… Read More

The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of Modern Europeby Mark Mazower
As Mark Mazower shows us in his enthralling and definitive new account, myths about the Greek War of Independence outpaced the facts from the very beginning, and for good reason. This was an unlikely cause, against long odds, a disorganized collection of Greek patriots up against what was still one of the most storied empires in the world, the Ottomans. The revolutionaries needed all the help they could get. And they got it as Europeans and Americans embraced the idea that the heirs to ancient Greece, the wellspring of Western civilization, were fighting for their freedom against the proverbial Eastern despot, the Turkish sultan. This was Christianity versus Islam, now given urgency by new ideas about the nation-state and democracy that were shaking up the old order. Lord Byron is only the most famous of the combatants who went to Greece to fight and die -- along with many more who followed events passionately and supported the… Read More

The Greeks: A Global History by Roderick Beaton
More than two thousand years ago, the Greek city-states, led by Athens and Sparta, laid the foundation for much of modern science, the arts, politics, and law. But the influence of the Greeks did not end with the rise and fall of this classical civilization. In The Greeks, historian Roderick Beaton reveals how over three millennia, Greek speakers have produced a series of remarkable civilizations whos impact has been felt across the globe.
In every era, Beaton reveals, Greeks have reinvented themselves, fighting different enemies, trading with different parnters, worshipping different gods, and even calling themselves by different names. The Bronze Age Mycenaens built powerful fortresses at home and strong trade routes abroad. During the Hellenistic period, the competing city-states of the classical world were united under the control of the powerful, Greek-speaking Alexander the Great, whose dramatic Eurasian conquests transformed Greek into a world… Read More

Hitler's American Gamble: Pearl Harbor and Germany's March to Global War by Brendan Simms and Charlie Laderman
By early December 1941, war had changed much of the world beyond recognition. Nazi Germany occupied most of the European continent, while in Asia, the Second Sino-Japanese War had turned China into a battleground. But these conflicts were not yet inextricably linked -- and the United States remained at peace.
Hitler's American Gamble recounts the five days that upended everything: December 7 to 11, from Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor to Hitler's declaration of war on the United States. Tracing developments in real-time, historians Brendan Simms and Charlie Laderman reveal how America's engagement against Germany was in fact far from inevitable. Instead, the fate of the world hung in the balance -- and it was decided in war rooms, across diplomatic cables, and through the political machinations of the era's most famous and powerful men: Roosevelt, Churchill, Hitler, and Stalin. Only with… Read More

Hitler's First Hundred Days: When Germans Embraced the Third Reich by Peter Fritzsche
Amid the ravages of economic depression, everyday Germans in the early 1930s were pulled to political extremes both Left and Right. Then, in the spring of 1933, Germany transformed from a deeply divided republic into a one-party Nazi dictatorship. In Hitler's First Hundred Days, Peter Fritzsche offers a probing account of the pivotal moments when the majority of Germans seemed, all at once, to join the Nazis to construct the Third Reich.
After Hitler's appointment as chancellor, the Nazis moved with brutality and audaciousness to solidify a new political order. Fritzsche offers a close examination of these few decisive months -- the elections and mass arrests, the gunfire and bonfires, the patriotic rallies and anti-Jewish boycotts -- to understand both the terrifying power that the National Socialists exerted over ordinary Germans as well as the appeal of the new era they promised. Rifling through newspapers,… Read More

In Search of a Kingdom: Francis Drake, Elizabeth I, and the Perilous Birth of the British Empire by Laurence Bergreen
Secretly dispatched by Queen Elizabeth to circumnavigate the globe and later called upon to save England from the Spanish Armada, Francis Drake was a hot-tempered, red-haired rogue who made his reputation by plundering and pillaging his way to the ends of the earth. Drake is regarded as a folk hero throughout Great Britain, a combination of unparalleled explorer and Robin Hood. But he was also a former slave trader and the brash hustler who beguiled the nearly insolvent young queen of England. For Elizabeth, he made the impossible real.
In 1580, Drake became the first captain to circumnavigate the globe successfully. (Ferdinand Magellan had died in his attempt.) Almost a decade later, when Elizabeth called upon Drake again, he dramatically defeated the Spanish Armada, spurring the British Empire's ascent. Throughout his career, he reaped benefits by making himself into the instrument… Read More

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson
Erik Larson has been widely acclaimed as a master of narrative nonfiction, and in this book, the bestselling author of The Devil in the White City turns his hand to a remarkable story set during Hitler's rise to power.
The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America's first ambassador to Hitler's Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.
A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first, Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the "New Germany," she has one affair after another, including with the surprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person… Read More

Nazi Wives: The Women at the Top of Hitler's Germany by James Wyllie
Goering, Goebbels, Himmler, Heydrich, Hess, Bormann -- these names were synonymous with power and influence in the Third Reich. Perhaps less familiar are Carin, Emmy, Magda, Margaret, Lina, Ilse, and Gerda.
These are the women behind the infamous men -- complex individuals with distinctive personalities who were captivated by Hitler and whose everyday lives were governed by Nazi ideology. Throughout the rise and fall of Nazism, these women raised families, fell in and out of love, and quarreled with their husbands and one another, all the while jostling for position with the Fuhrer himself. Until now, they have been treated as minor characters, their significance ignored, as if they were unaware of their husbands' murderous acts, despite the evidence that was all around them: the stolen art on their walls, the slave labor in their homes, and the produce grown in concentration camps on their tables.
James Wyllie's Nazi Wives explores… Read More

The Normans: Power, Conquest & Culture in 11th-Century Europe by Judith A. Green
In the eleventh century, the European climate was improving, the population was growing, and people were on the move. The Norman dynasty spread from Byzantium to England, led by men who achieved lasting fame like William the Conqueror and Robert Guiscard. These figures cultivated an image of unstoppable Norman success, and in the centuries since their victories make for a great story. But how much of this formidable legend is true?
In this insightful history, Judith Green challenges old certainties and explores the reality of Norman life across the continent. In a period when there were many soldiers of fortune, the Norman's success was due to timing, good luck, and ruthless leadership. Green shows just how profound and wide-ranging their impact was, from bringing drastic change in England to laying the foundations for unification in Sicily, to their contribution to the First Crusade.
Enriching our understanding of this… Read More

Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages by Dan Jones
When the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410, it signaled the end of an era -- and the beginning of a thousand years of profound transformation. In an epic narrative bursting with great characters -- from St. Augustine and Attila the Hun to the Prophet Muhammad and Eleanor of Aquitaine -- Dan Jones charges through the history of the Middle Ages and offers a fresh perspective on this rich and complicated age. Powers and Thrones takes readers on a journey through an emerging Europe, the great capitals of late Antiquity, as well as the influential cities of the Islamic West, and culminates in the first European voyages to the Americas.
The medieval world was forged by the big forces that still occupy us today: climate change, pandemic disease, mass migration, and technological revolutions. This was the time when the great European nationalities were formed; when the basic Western systems of law and governance were… Read More

Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
In Thunderstruck, Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men -- Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication -- whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time.
Set in Edwardian London and on the stormy coasts of Cornwall, Cape Cod, and Nova Scotia, Thunderstruck evokes the dynamism of those years when great shipping companies competed to build the biggest, fastest ocean liners, scientific advances dazzled the public with visions of a world transformed, and the rich outdid one another with ostentatious displays of wealth. Against this background, Marconi races against incredible odds and relentless skepticism to perfect his invention: the wireless, a prime catalyst for the emergence of the world we know today. Meanwhile, Crippen, "the kindest of men," nearly commits the perfect crime.
With his superb narrative skills, Erik Larson guides these… Read More

The Unfathomable Ascent: How Hitler Came to Power by Peter Ross Range
THERE IS A BLACK "CLOSEOUT/REMAINDER" MARK ON THE TOP PAGE EDGES.
On the night of January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler leaned out of a spotlit window of the Reich chancellery in Berlin, butsting with joy. The moment seemed unbelievable, even to Hitler. After an improbable political journey that came close to faltering on many occasions, his march to power had finally succeeded.
While the story of Hitler's rise has been told in books covering larger portions of his life, no previous work has focused solely on his eight year clime to rule: 1925 - 1933. Renowned author Peter Ross Range brings this period back to startling life with a narrative history that describes brushes with power, quests for revenge, nonstop electioneering, American-style campaign tactics, and -- for Hitler -- moments of gloating triumph followed by abject humiliation.
Indeed, this is the tale of a high school dropout's clim from the infamy of a failed coup to the… Read More

The Viking Great Army and the Making of England by Dawn M. Hadley & Julian D. Richards
The Viking Great Army that swept through England between 865 and 878 CE altered the course of British history. Since the late 8th century, Viking raids on the British Isles had been a regular feature of life, but the winter of 865 saw a fundamental shift that would change the political, economic, and social landscape forever. The Vikings remained in England for the winter and became immersed in its communities. Some settled permanently, acquiring land and forming a new hybrid Anglo-Scandinavian culture. The Viking army was here to stay. Its presence was a catalyst for new towns and new industries, while transformations in power politics would ultimately see the rise of King Alfred the Great and make Wessex the pre-eminent kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England.
Drawing on the most up-to-date discoveries and the latest scientific techniques, the authors' recent research at the Viking Great Army's winter camp, as well as a… Read More

The Volunteer: One Man, an Underground Army, and the Secret Mission to Destroy Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather
THERE IS A BLACK "CLOSEOUT/REMAINDER" MARK ON THE BOTTOM PAGE EDGES.
To uncover the fate of the thousands being interred at a mysterious Nazi camp on the border of the Reich, a thirty-nine-year-old Polish resistance fighter named Witold Pilecki volunteered for an audacious mission: assume a fake identity, intentionally get captured and sent to the new camp, and then report back to the underground on what had happened to his compatriots there. But gathering information was not his only task: he was to execute an attack from inside -- where the Germans would least expect it.
The name of the camp was Auschwitz.
Over the next two and a half years, Pilecki forged an underground army within Auschwitz that sabotaged facilities, assassinated Nazi informants and officers, and amassed evidence of shocking abuse and mass murder. But as he pieced together the horrifying truth that the camp was to become… Read More